How Much Should I Open The Golf Club Face In A Bunker? (Video) - Lesson 3 by Pete Styles

How Much Should I Open The Golf Club Face In A Bunker? (Video) - Lesson 3 by Pete Styles

When you are in a bunker a lot of people understand the concept of the fact the club face should be open. Everyone’s talked about opening the face to get the ball out the bunker. But do we know what open means and do we know how much we should open the club face?

From my experience most golfers in the bunker they don’t open the club anywhere near as much as I could or as they should because they don’t understand how that should work. So ‘open’ is generally the term you used for the right handed golfers of having the face aiming to be right of their target line.
So my target line let’s just say it’s here, it’s this first red flag. If I have the club face aiming at it that would be square, if I had the club face aiming right of it that, would be open. The easiest way to address the club in an open position is to hold it up in front of you and that would be vertical and that would be 12 o’clock let’s say. Now if I twist the golf club from my view here the leading edge now points at one o’clock. If I make my grip with the club already at one o’clock and bring it down that’s now in an open position and I think one o’clock is a decent open position to play most general bunkers shots from.
So if you just got a normal bunker shot, twist the golf club to one o’clock – one o’clock and the grip it. Now it’s quite important you don’t grip it and then try and twist it because when you bring club back down to make your swing, chances are, your hands will just roll it back to its square position again. So its one – sorry its 12 twist it to one and the re-grip, bring it down that’s in a nice open position. However if you are playing a more sort of a high shot though, a shot that needs to come up higher and shorter over a more steep sided bunker, made more like a flop shot so much. We’d actually advocate opening the club face even more.
So here’s a nice little exercise to get the golf club open a little bit more than that. You can take the golf club and twist it in your hands so it feels like its pointing up vertically then just bounce the ball off the face and if that ball comes up vertically and then I can keep the club in exactly that position and set up. I now know that face is vertical if you like I could get a glass of wine balanced on that and it wouldn’t fall off.
So if in I can now set up to that shot and play it it’s a very high shot that flips after the bunker and puts loads of spin on the ball. So if you want a high floaty flop shot, imagine that you’ve got the face open so you can get a glass of wine balanced on that. You could practice at home bouncing the ball off the face if that comes up vertically then I know that the club is an open in a enough position, but as I slide that onto the ball and flip it out, the sand will just drive the ball forward, loads of high, loads of spin and stopping on the green. So we’ve got a one o’clock position for your standing bunker shots and a vertically open glass of wine balanced on the club face for your higher floppy sort of spinning bunker shots. That’s how much you can open the club face.
2014-01-17

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When you are in a bunker a lot of people understand the concept of the fact the club face should be open. Everyone’s talked about opening the face to get the ball out the bunker. But do we know what open means and do we know how much we should open the club face?

From my experience most golfers in the bunker they don’t open the club anywhere near as much as I could or as they should because they don’t understand how that should work. So ‘open’ is generally the term you used for the right handed golfers of having the face aiming to be right of their target line.

So my target line let’s just say it’s here, it’s this first red flag. If I have the club face aiming at it that would be square, if I had the club face aiming right of it that, would be open. The easiest way to address the club in an open position is to hold it up in front of you and that would be vertical and that would be 12 o’clock let’s say. Now if I twist the golf club from my view here the leading edge now points at one o’clock. If I make my grip with the club already at one o’clock and bring it down that’s now in an open position and I think one o’clock is a decent open position to play most general bunkers shots from.

So if you just got a normal bunker shot, twist the golf club to one o’clock – one o’clock and the grip it. Now it’s quite important you don’t grip it and then try and twist it because when you bring club back down to make your swing, chances are, your hands will just roll it back to its square position again. So its one – sorry its 12 twist it to one and the re-grip, bring it down that’s in a nice open position. However if you are playing a more sort of a high shot though, a shot that needs to come up higher and shorter over a more steep sided bunker, made more like a flop shot so much. We’d actually advocate opening the club face even more.

So here’s a nice little exercise to get the golf club open a little bit more than that. You can take the golf club and twist it in your hands so it feels like its pointing up vertically then just bounce the ball off the face and if that ball comes up vertically and then I can keep the club in exactly that position and set up. I now know that face is vertical if you like I could get a glass of wine balanced on that and it wouldn’t fall off.

So if in I can now set up to that shot and play it it’s a very high shot that flips after the bunker and puts loads of spin on the ball. So if you want a high floaty flop shot, imagine that you’ve got the face open so you can get a glass of wine balanced on that. You could practice at home bouncing the ball off the face if that comes up vertically then I know that the club is an open in a enough position, but as I slide that onto the ball and flip it out, the sand will just drive the ball forward, loads of high, loads of spin and stopping on the green. So we’ve got a one o’clock position for your standing bunker shots and a vertically open glass of wine balanced on the club face for your higher floppy sort of spinning bunker shots. That’s how much you can open the club face.